Hearts and Roses
by AhmoseInarus
Summary: Valentines fic Exchange from Chit Chat On Author's Corner - For ReKoJ - A story of the night before Valentines Day in which Aaron Hotchner appreciates the two most important people in his life.


Hearts and Roses

Ahmose Inarus

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Criminal Minds or The Beatles! D'uh!

SLASH WARNING! Hotch/Reid

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This fic is for ReKoJ for the Valetine's Day Fic Exchange on Chit Chat On Author's Corner Forum! Please enjoy!

Assigned Pairing: Hotch/Reid

Assigned love song: If I Fell (The Beatles)

Assigned prompts: pink and red paper hearts, valentine's day cards, red roses

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Sunday, February 13th

7:51 PM

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Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, the Unit Chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, leader of a team of the most elite Agents in the FBI stood there… lost. He didn't know what to do…

… What do you get your male lover for Valentines Day? Especially such an unusual male… Spencer Reid was HARDLY typical for his age, gender or job…

And so Hotch just stood there and sighed.

… Chocolate covered strawberries. Did Spencer LIKE strawberries?

The chocolates in the red heart box. Hmmm… maybe?

Pinky Teddy Bear with a heart balloo—DEFINITELY no!

… Roses? Do you GIVE flowers to your boyfriend?

Hell... Reid liked classics. Red roses were classic!

… Right?

Hotch groaned and gathered up two dozen red roses before hurrying to the checkout register.

"… Last minute gift so you don't spend the night on the sofa?" The cashier asked, grinning.

Hotch fixed his trademark glare on the arrogant little bastard, having NO intention of putting up with a cocky teenager making cracks about who wore the pants in his family. He was unable to help it when he growled out, "First off, Valentines Day is tomorrow. And second, my boyfriend isn't that callous."

The cashier froze, eyes wide. "… Boyfriend?" He squeaked.

Hotch swiped his debit card through the scanner and punched in his PIN number, glancing at the cashier and working up a quick profile. Then, he smirked as he took his receipt and said, "At least I have someone sharing my bed. Other than a cat, I mean." And he walked away, leaving the cashier wondering how the hell Hotch had known that he had a cat…

Hotch got into his car and drove away, thinking of the cat hair that had been all over the teenager's shirt. He was relieved when he got home… he had never wanted to leave on a Sunday, especially since he had Jack this weekend… sometimes, he wished he could dump the duties of Unit Chief on Rossi. But the man would quit if he did. Hotch chuckled to himself as he imagined the look on Dave's face if he had suddenly proclaimed that HE were the Unit Chief.

He parked his car and headed to the front door, unlocking it and stepping in. The place was warm, cozy and inviting. He heard voices from the kitchen, so that's where he went. As he drew closer, he could hear the radio playing one of his favorite songs, "If I Fell" by the Beatles. It made him smile and sigh slightly.

But his warm and cozy feeling of contentment came to a grinding halt when he reached the kitchen. When he arrived at the doorway, he just stopped and stared. The kitchen looked like something a Hallmark store had barfed up. There were hearts everywhere… red and pink paper hearts and confetti and glitter and… Dear God, he did NOT want to clean this up…

And there, sitting in the middle of the mess that would delight Garcia to no end, were Reid and Jack. And they were both covered in glitter and… Hotch just felt tired now… There seemed to be a pink heart glued to the middle of Reid's forehead and a red one on his left cheek. Jack was gluing the hearts and glitter onto a shoe box with a narrow rectangular hole cut into the top. And Reid was sitting before a pile of Captain America Valentines Day cards with silly little sayings on them, like "Have a Heroic Valentines Day!"

That's right, Hotch remembered. Tomorrow was Monday… Valentines Day… Jack had his class party where they were supposed to decorate shoe boxes for their classmates to deposit valentines into. He was supposed to be the one to help Jack with the decorating of the box, but he had so much work he had to get done by Monday. He appreciated that Reid had helped his son instead but… God… the MESS!

"Okay…" Reid said, not looking up. "Next on the list is Grant. Can you spell Grant?"

"… G…R… A… N… T." Jack recited.

"Very good." Reid said, smiling and writing the name on the little card and taping a little box of Nerds to the back of the card. "Next up is Hayden."

"… Do I have to?" Jack asked. "I don't like Hayden. He's mean…"

"Well…" Reid said, calmly. "How would you feel if someone in your class gave everyone a card but you?" Jack didn't answer, he just frowned and threw a lot more glitter onto his box. Reid smiled a bit, then said, "And what did your daddy say about people who are mean?"

"… They go to jail." Jack said. Reid grinned and fought not to laugh.

"The OTHER thing."

"… We have to be nice to people if we want them to be nice to us." Jack mumbled, reluctantly.

"That's right. So. How do we spell Hayden?"

"S… T… U… P… I… D." Jack said firmly. Reid's eyebrows shot up and he stared at the child, wondering how a kid his age had such a sophisticated sense of… sarcastic humor.

"Uh… Jack, let's try to be nice. Now how do you spell Hayden?"

"… H… A… D… I… N…"

"No… try again."

"H… A… D… E… N?"

"Closer." Reid said with a smile and a nod. "H-A-Y-D-E-N. Think of it like… A pile of HAY in the lion's DEN." Jack thought a moment, then nodded.

"Okay." He said, and went back to his box.

"Next is Jenna."

"EW!"

"Ew?" Reid asked, looking up.

"She tries to KISS me!" Jack whined, and Hotch grinned from the shadows, watching the amused look cross his lover's face.

"Oh DOES she now?"

"It's GROSS!" Jack whined.

"You know… in ten years, you'll be doing just about ANYTHING to get a girl to kiss you." Reid pointed out.

"Uh, let's not get ahead of ourselves!" Hotch finally said, stepping into the room looking slightly disconcerted. He reached out and flicked off the radio now that "If I Fell" had ended.

"Hi, Daddy." Jack said, turning around. Hotch just froze and stared. Jack had a pink heart on one cheek and a red one in glitter on the other… Spencer had drawn a heart on the child's face with the glue, and sprinkled glitter on it. Hotch reached out and took hold of his son's chin in his fingers and turned his head so he could inspect Spencer's art a bit better.

"… Your handy work?" He asked in the tone he tended to use when Reid started launching bottle rockets made of film canisters around the Bull Pen.

"… Yessir?" Reid answered in the same guilty tone with the same look he tended to use when he was caught doing the previously mentioned act. Hotch blinked at him, then just sighed and ran his hand over his hair. Then he jabbed a finger at the young man.

"YOU…" He said firmly, "Will finish the cards, clean up this mess, take a shower, and go to bed." Reid's eyebrows shot up and he fought not to grin in his amusement. "And YOU." Hotch continued, lifting Jack out of the chair. "I think your box is as decorated as it can get… YOU need a bath." Jack whined, but Hotch carried him from the room. Reid's eyes widened when Jack opened his hand… which had been fisted around a large amount of glitter… and said glitter went all over Hotch.

"You're pretty, daddy!"

"Jack!" Hotch's frustrated voice drifted back and Reid snickered to himself, hurrying to finish the cards. He then placed them all in Jack's glittery shoe box and began cleaning. It only took him fifteen minutes to do so, and then he headed off to bathe. He passed Jack's bedroom as he went, and grinned as he listened to Hotch trying to wrestle his son into Transformer pajamas; the child wanted his IRON MAN pajamas, but, as Hotch was trying to explain, they were in the laundry after the Lucky Charms incident that morning. Reid just grinned and got to the room he shared with Hotch, stepping into the bathroom and stripping off his clothes in a shower of glitter and putting them in the hamper.

He peeled the paper hearts off of his face while the water warmed up, and then stepped in to enjoy a long, hot shower. He finished in about fifteen minutes and got out, shaved, brushed his teeth and pulled on his tan bathrobe, glancing at Hotch's sage green one. He opened the bathroom door and moved to step through, but he checked himself when he found his path was blocked by a huge bunch of fresh cut red roses.

He let out a soft, surprised gasp as his eyes widened. "… Oh." He breathed, and lifted his eyes to meet the gaze of Aaron Hotchner. "… Aaron." Hotch couldn't help but smile at the blush that spread over the younger man's face.

"I know it's a bit early, but God only knows if we'll be across the country tomorrow night, so… Happy Valentines Day." Hotch said, softly.

"… Aaron." Reid said again, this time his voice warm and filled with affection. He reached out and gathered the roses in one arm, while curling another around the elder man, gently kissing him. Hotch smiled, running a hand up and down Reid's back.

"… Thank you. For helping Jack." Hotch told him, softly. Reid just smiled.

"Any time." He replied, and without any more words, the pair moved over to the bed. When they got there, Hotch began to push his lover's robe aside and the roses fell from Reid's arm, scattering over the bed. Reid's body followed them, and Hotch was grateful that the thorns had been cut off of the long stems. Quickly stripping himself, he moved to cover Reid's body with his own, capturing his mouth in a passionate kiss while he fumbled in the drawer of the bedside table. As he did, Reid carefully moved himself more into the middle of the bed, and Hotch let out a soft noise of disappointment when this meant breaking their kiss.

Reid just smiled up at the man, picking up a half-bloomed rose and gently running the soft petals down the elder's cheek. Hotch smiled slightly and moved closer.

"… We… don't have to worry about Jack?" Reid whispered when the man kissed over his collar bones.

"… I told him that we needed some alone time." Hotch chuckled. "He knows what that means."

"Oh does he?"

"He interrupted alone time with me and Haley once… scared him to death."

"… He saw you having sex?" Reid exclaimed.

"We were under the blankets!" Hotch grinned, sitting up and taking a page out of Reid's book, trailing a rose down the boy's chest, circling his nipples before brushing over them. "What scared him was what happened when he startled mommy and daddy. We started shouting at him, at each other, yours truly almost fell out of bed and Haley made a run for the bathroom with the bed sheet while screaming at me to do something. Poor kid was so startled he just ran from the room crying. THAT was a fiasco… Oh, shut up." Hotch growled, glaring down at his mate, who was enjoying a good laugh.

"Oh, wow… what I wouldn't GIVE to have seen your face." Reid announced, grinning broadly.

"Shut up, you…" Hotch grumbled, lowering his head to silence his mate with a kiss, now trailing the rose over Reid's hips, and then down the top of his thigh… He smirked at the soft shiver and gasp when he brought it back up the boy's inner thigh.

"Ohhhh…" Reid groaned when the velvety petals tickled a path up his awakening arousal.

"… I love you…" Hotch whispered into his ear. Reid smiled and turned his head, placing kisses over the man's face. The man slid down his torso and began to tease the boy's chest, coaxing his nipples into taught peaks. He relished every sigh and moan from the younger man, who had turned his head to the side and unintentionally burying his face into several of the dropped roses. And he seemed fine with that as he arched his back and ran long fingers through the man's short, dark hair.

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A few lines have been removed due to the site admin cracking down on explicit content

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Their love making wasn't rough… it wasn't intense… it was honest, loving and tender, and when it was over, Hotch breathed "God… I love you…" He lifted himself up on his hands, pinning Reid's hands down with his own and linking their fingers. Reid stared up at him, a look of contentment on his face. Hotch gently kissed him and rolled off the bed. He slipped into the bathroom and returned with a warm wet cloth, cleansing his lover before moving to lie beside him, drawing the blankets up over them.

And surrounded by the two dozen red roses, they drifted to sleep.

Their waking wasn't quite so peaceful.

"HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!"

Hotch and Reid jerked awake, eyes wide and startled. Then, there was a flurry of movement over them. As they lay there under the blankets amongst the red roses, pink and red paper hearts and left-over Captain America Valentine cards fluttered down around them, courtesy of Jack. Then, the little boy took a flying leap onto the bed and landed on his father.

"OOMPH!" Hotch grunted, letting out a whoosh of air as Jack landed on his stomach.

"Morning, Daddy." Jack said, smiling.

"Nnnghh… morning…" Hotch groaned, grimacing. Reid couldn't stop his low chuckles.

"Morning!" Jack sang, flopping off of his dad and landing between Hotch and Reid. "Why are there flowers in your bed?" Reid and Hotch both froze, eyes wide.

"Uh… How about you go get dressed and I'll make you some breakfast?" Hotch said, and shooed Jack off of the bed. Then he leapt up and pulled on pajama pants and his robe.

Then, as he started to leave the room, he paused at the soft call, "I love you." He stopped and turned, smiling at the sight of his lover, surrounded by paper hearts and roses. And Hotch grinned.

"Be ready to go when I get back from dropping Jack at school." He said, softly. "… Love you too." And he slipped out of the room to tend to his son. Reid just sighed and relaxed, picking up one of the roses and held it up, staring at it for a moment. Then he grinned and got out of bed, reaching for his clothes.

It was Valentines Day. And he planned to spend every moment of it with Aaron. And so when Hotch left the house Reid was at his side and they dropped Jack off at school together. And they watched him run up to the doors of the school with his Valentine box, showing it off proudly to the teacher standing at the door. Hotch and Reid just grinned at each other and Hotch pulled away, taking Reid's hand into his own and gently kissing it.

And they enjoyed the drive to work together, Reid twirling one of the roses in his hand while "If I Fell" played over the radio.

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Happy Valentines Day!


End file.
